Undisguised 2009 Nissan GT-R

[Daeron]

Honestly, outside the Corvettes of recent years, not many new cars get my engine pumping at all. This skyline is another disappointment, but I would call it much LESS of a disappointment than many other vehicles.

 

The first gen S30 will always, always be one of my favorite body designs, period. I wince when people put skyline tail lights on the things; save that for S130s. Any Z or ZX up to 1987 really really appeals to me much more than anything ELSE Nissan has released since then.

 

I am still waiting for them to bring back to ORIGINAL Fair Lady, the Roadster. Honda beat them to the punch in 2000, and they still refuse to admit that they could go toe to toe with Miata... and NOW the low-priced roadster market is saturated, between the mazda, the honda, the pontiac, and the saturn..

 

In the end, whaddaya gonna do? Corvette is the last car that mad much room for improvement, looks wise. Concentrate on the go-boxes; thats all thats important to us anyhow. Like was said above, most of these cars are going to be sold and used as status symbols and NOT dead sexy sports cars. Alas.

[thehelix112]

My main problem with new cars is the weight. The C6 Z06 weights 1421kg officially, and has more hp, and does't look half bad.

 

Anyone know what this one weighs? The R34 was over 1600kg IIRC.

 

Dave

[Globerunner513]

atleast pleaaaaaase tell me they're not gonna make a LHD skyline for here....??

 

i know its confirmed to release, but its gonna stay RHD right?

[MrFancypants]

Too sharp... too angular. A car's gotta have some curves. I felt Nissan went too industrial with the 350Z -- looks like they carried it forward to the GTR. Oh well... at least it will be fast

 

 

 

- Greg -

[mannyvig]

Sorry the north america car will be LHD

[nbesheer]

Is this car just going to be a big engine on a sedan chassis ? or is it a ground up sports car ?

[Zerrari GTO]

Cheap date: ugly but a fast and fun ride.

 

Expensive date: beautiful, sexy and a fast fun ride.

 

...Nissan wants an expensive date price for cheap date looks.

[Pete84]

Is this car just going to be a big engine on a sedan chassis ? or is it a ground up sports car ?

 

The whole car sits on the new PM platform, PM meaning Prime Midship. The PM incorporates what Mizuno-san called a “hybrid superstructure body.†There is carbon-injected material in the front end and carbon composite material underneath for aerodynamic downforce. There’s even some polypropylene in the body, too.

My main problem with new cars is the weight. The C6 Z06 weights 1421kg officially, and has more hp, and does't look half bad.

 

Anyone know what this one weighs? The R34 was over 1600kg IIRC.

 

Dave

 

Curb Weight: 3792 pounds

The 997 Turbo weights +/- 3500 lbs, the Z06 ~3100.

But, both are focused sports cars. The GT-R has real back seats and a real trunk, just look at the pics on the front page. It could be a comfy DD, 40K cheaper than a 997T and worlds more liveable than a Z06.

 

On the point of styling, I think it looks back to the angular lines of the KGC10 and the C110. Is anyone going to mistake it for anything different? What GT-R owner wants to be complemented on his Z or G?

 

 

Test drive from Autoweek!

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071017/FREE/71017001/1065

Yes, it lives up to all the hype!

 

The coming Nissan GT-R is a world-class supercar: Top speed of 193 mph, 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, a 473 hp, 433 lb ft twin-turbo V6 mounted in the front and driving all four wheels through a rear-mounted transaxle. Take a breath. Okay, continue. And a dual-clutch six-speed automatic you can operate via paddles on the steering wheel.

 

After a full day driving it on the Nurburgring, the Autobahn and up and over numerous little German country roads we can easily say this is one car that was not over hyped. It is truly a world-class supercar on par with, if not just ahead of, the iconic Porsche Turbo. (They had a Porsche Turbo on hand, too, and we thought the GT-R felt better tied down.)

 

But it’s one thing to put a license plate on a race car and call it streetable. Chief engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno said the new GT-R was designed and engineered as an all-around, all-season, all-weather car that is comfortable to drive every day, even at normal speeds on a normal day.

 

During the few minutes we drove at what could be called a “normal pace†that day we’d have to say we agree with him. But given only a few hours at the wheel of this, the most highly anticipated supercar in years, we were only in “normal†mode for very brief spurts. The rest of the time we were at some level between “pushing it†and “hammering on the mutha’.â€

 

Our first time behind the wheel was on the A48 autobahn in Germany somewhere out around Koblenz or Koln or some other K-town where the German socialist government had not yet succeeded in adding those awful 120-km-hr speed limits. It was like Bonneville with elevation changes and guardrails. The only limitation out here was aerodynamic. Hence, we were obliged to go all-out whompin’ fast the whole time.

 

Rolling right out of the autobahn rest stop where we rendezvoused with the Japanese engineering support crew, we nailed the throttle to the floor and man did the throttle respond. The 3.8-liter VR38 V6 sits up front, with two of its six cylinders forward of the front axle and four aft. Two bagel-sized IHI turbos sit right at the exhaust manifold for quick response. The 433 lb ft of torque rails across the tach from 3200 to 5200 rpm. Peak 473 hp comes at 6400 revs.

 

A carbon fiber prop shaft (“Good damping and stiffnessâ€) runs back to the transaxle, incorporating the clutch, transmission and transaxle altogether. The shifting is done via a direct, twin-clutch system. One clutch handles the odd gears and another clutch handles the even ones. Shifts take 0.2 seconds. There are BorgWarner triple-cone synchronizers for all gears. Another shaft runs forward from that transaxle to send power to the front wheels. Below 25 mph the torque split is 50/50, above that, under normal driving, the split is 40/60. But it can split up to 2/98 under hard acceleration, which was what we were giving it.

 

Our car rode on 20-inch wheels wrapped by Bridgestone Potenza RE070s, 255/40 in front and 285/35 rears. Front suspension was upper and lower A-arms and the rear was a five-link.

 

It’s always fun to go from zero to warp factor in a right hand-drive car using a jet-lagged left hand-drive brain, trying not to turn on the windshield wipers when you think you’re hitting the turn signal.

 

The GT-R lists quarter-mile time at 11.7 seconds and entering the Autobahn we had no reason to doubt that. The turbo boost was, as promised, very progressive, with little or no discernable lag, just smooth, even power delivery.

 

Despite the late-morning hour and the mid-week day, there were still a few cars in the way. When we eased onto the 15.2-inch ventilated cross-drilled Brembo brakes from well into triple-digit speeds the car slowed without drama. But then traffic would clear out and the GT-R resumed its high velocity chase with ease.

 

There are three settings for the Bilstein Damptronic shocks: R, Sports and Comfort. We went out in Sports.

 

Top speed is listed at 193 mph but with traffic the best we could do was 176. You wouldn’t try that in any country but Germany, where you can usually assume everyone else is paying attention. There was a Japanese engineer riding shotgun over on the left whom we dubbed “Bushido engineer-o†or brave engineer. He thought that was pretty funny.

 

While the coefficient of drag is an impressive 0.27, better than almost any production car, the GT-R also produces downforce at each axle, something very few production cars can claim.

 

“Cd is more important than downforce on a G35,†said chief designer Hiroshi Hasegawa. “But in the case of the GT-R we have to make downforce.â€

 

At 193 mph you might appreciate that philosophy.

 

The first time we went out, the right front wheel felt just a little out of balance, so we came back in and they changed all four wheels. They’re efficient, these guys. After that the car was smooth as well as stable and safe, due in equal parts to the German roadway and the Japanese engineering.

 

The whole car sits on the new PM platform, PM meaning Prime Midship. The PM incorporates what Mizuno-san called a “hybrid superstructure body.†There is carbon-injected material in the front end and carbon composite material underneath for aerodynamic downforce. There’s even some polypropylene in the body, too.

 

We truly enjoyed the Autobahn experience. This is the perfect car for such a top-speed run—it gives such a sense of control at those speeds that you feel like you could do anything.

 

Next on our agenda of “anything†were some miles of country road. We were able to drive the GT-R back-to-back with a Porsche Turbo.

 

“Okay now, please enjoy,†said the Nissan technician as we exited the company compound down the street from the Nurburgring.

 

After “much spirited driving,†we can say the Turbo had a good deal more lag and more dive and squat than the GT-R. But once the Porsche got spooled up, achtung, baby. It felt lighter and the steering felt quicker, too. The biggest difference between the two was that the Turbo demanded more of its driver while the GT-R was easier to handle, flatter and more stable. We’d be happy with either one, if you’re considering a birthday present or anything.

 

Next up on this Disneyland of a day was Der Nurburgring. This is what all those teenagers whose parents have not taken away their Playstation access really want to do: drive an actual GT-R around the actual Nurburgring as fast as grip, guts and gasoline allow.

 

Man-oh-flippin’-man. The real deal is about 100 times more thrilling than any computer simulation, even those with the little plastic steering wheel and feet pedals attached.

 

This was the new Nurburgring, too. Nissan wasn’t foolish enough to turn this small squadron of car writer hacks loose on the narrow, blind, crazy-dangerous Nordschliefe. At the time of our drive there were only three prototype GT-Rs extant in the world, and all the apologizing on Earth wouldn’t bring one back if you crunched it.

 

The new Nurburgring is faster, with wide, sweeping turns bordered by runoff areas so huge that even the most no-talent buffoon could likely stay on the pavement. So we did.

 

All the Japanese engineers and executives had been telling everyone that there was a 35-mph speed limit in the pits, but in all the excitement we kind of forgot about it and nailed the throttle right out of the parking spot right there in pit lane. The wide, low, squealing run-flat tires laid down long patches of black rubber as we launched past the closed garages, pulling back on the right paddle to shift the rear-mounted dual-clutch six-speed transaxle every time the engine got close to its 7000-rpm redline.

 

In no time at all we were roaring onto pit-out near the end of the straight and directly into the low, evening sun. By the time we got fully out on the front straight and were shifting up from four to five or so, the sun was directly in front of the GT-R and streaming into the windshield; we were trying to remember if that first right-hander came at this rise or just past it. It was just past it, but we’d already started braking and downshifting, the GR6’s “synchro-rev control,†which perfectly matched each downshift with a throttle blip much better than we’d ever have been able to match it.

 

Tiptoeing through the first couple turns to avoid the infamy of the run-off gravel, the car felt perfectly safe and willing. So we hammered it up through the gears down the hill and to the far 180-degree turn and started to feel more confident. By the end of the first lap we were flat out on the front straight, roaring up through all six gears for all it was worth.

 

Nissan lists lateral g’s at 0.99, and we certainly bumped up against that in many a Nurburgring corner.

 

We only got three full laps and no one was timing us, so you’ll just have to assume we set the lap record. Earlier, Mizuno-san had offered some lap times from the Nordschliefe for various cars driven by the German magazine SportAuto. Those times are driver-dependent, track-knowledge-dependent, weather-, traffic- and bunny-crossing-the-track dependent. But Mizuno suggested the GT-R could get anywhere from 7:44 on up, with most laps coming in between 7:55 and 7:58. So he suggested the GT-R’s strong suit was that it offered “the best cost per lap time.†For whatever that’s worth.

 

The GT-R will be priced somewhere in the low-$70,000 range, which does make it perhaps the best cost per lap. We’ll know for sure when it enters U.S. showrooms in May or June. Japan will get first crack at it, we get second and the Europeans, who did such a great job of getting out of our way during our Autobahn drive, will have to get it third.

 

 

SPECS: 2009 Nissan GT-R

On Sale: May/June

 

Base Price: Low 70s

 

Drivetrain: 3.8-liter, 473-hp, 433-lb-ft twin turbocharged V6; awd, six-speed automatic

 

Curb Weight: 3792 pounds

 

0-60: 3.5 seconds

 

Fuel Economy (EPA Combined): 21 mpg (mfg. target)

[Pete84]

Found this in the comments section of the above articles.

 

It was always my impression of a Skyline that it has to be just as luxurious as sporty. It was never an all out racer, it was marketed to the working professional who also had an interest in driving fast. Comparing it to a Porsche may be relevant, but I still feel that the two cars are marketed to different people.

[RB26powered74zcar]

3800 lbs..........

[thehelix112]

1720 god damn kilograms!!! Holy jesus christ!!! Urgh.

 

Dave

[Daeron]

fat-bottomed girls, they make the rockin' world go round.

[EMWHYR0HEN]

Give it a chance fellas.

 

I'm almost positive lots of people were skeptical when they releast the 350Z on paper, I sure was.

 

Then when you saw one in person, It grew on you didn't it? I have a feeling the new GT-R will be the same way.

[nbesheer]

This is true, but even still I don't like the 350Z. I wouldn't mind having one, but... not really on the top of the list of cars for me to buy

[capt_furious]

I've always thought the 350 didn't deserve the Z badge due to how fugly it is.

[Gollum]

Are people really complaining about it being in the high 3k pound range?

 

The origonal GTR cars were always heavy beasts for their size and market, but their technology gave them the upper hand.

 

The real disappointment to me is that for 70ish thousand dollars you're not getting yaw control on the AWD (someone prove me wrong please, I'd be happier), and the next gen EVO will, and for less money. The main thing I think the GTR will offer will be it's luxury/supercar/practicality combo it has going. It's probably gonna ride like the best of the jap lux cars, but it's gonna be as fast as some of the fastest cars in it's price range, but it's going to be a tame beast on the street.

 

I doubt many cars can touch it in that regard but we'll just have to wait and see.

 

And I'm personally glad the car is a bit outrageous looking. I'm not a huge fan of it yet, but I have a feeling it's going to grow on me. It has the long look that the R34 had, with all the aggressiveness that most R34 GTR cars ENDED UP being after people started modifying them. Maybe nissan is just trying to give people what they thought they'd want to begin with. Who knows.

 

 

But for that price, if I was making enough money that I could afford one, or even come close, I'd do all within my power to get one. The skyline has been legend since it's induction many decades ago, and this one seems to live up to the hype thus far, and I'd guarantee it WILL hold it's value like all the past cars.

 

Just my .02 cents.

 

 

...can't wait to see them stateside.

[Daeron]

It is very well executed, but it is well executed in an idiom that isn't very appealing to me. Just like the 350Z, albeit a slightly different idiom.

 

That make any sense? I can never REALLY make a final judgment on a new vehicle until I see one in the flesh anyhow. In any case, the car is very impressive, and hopefully it will take off. (that way in ten years the engines will be ready to stuff in an S30! )

[Ole-M]

atleast pleaaaaaase tell me they're not gonna make a LHD skyline for here....??

 

i know its confirmed to release, but its gonna stay RHD right?

 

They will not make a LHD Skyline. Insted they offer the same cars(4-door and coupe) with a Infiniti badge and LHD in the US.

 

The Nissan GT-R on the other hand, will be made with LHD and RHD and will be sold all over the world.

 

We should all know by now, it's not called "Nissan Skyline GT-R" anymore, its just "Nissan GT-R" (sadly).

[Gollum]

Which makes it better that it's not a skyline anymore. It has it's own platform now and doesn't have to deal with ties to other vehicles. Should make it more 'pure' i think.

[Cable]

We should all know by now, it's not called "Nissan Skyline GT-R" anymore, its just "Nissan GT-R" (sadly).

 

So what if it isn't call a Skyline. Its still a badass ride.